A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

If you're interested in sustainability on the local and personal levels, your biggest obstacles will be homeowners associations, zoning boards, and city councils. Those people will be wedded to business as usual long after it becomes apparent to early adopters that BAU just isn't working any more. Watch those local governing entities hang onto the past like adherents of a cargo cult.

Case in point.

To sum up the situation, the Bass family of Oak Park lost their lawn when the sewer line running under their front yard was replaced. Instead of replacing it with a lawn, they replaced it with a vegetable garden. Their neighbors complained to the city and the city has cited them with a criminal violation of city ordinances. The Basses and the city have a court date on July 26th. Mrs. Bass has started a blog, OakParkHateVeggies on Wordpress, to record her experience.

I'm not surprised this controversy is taking place in Oak Park. When it comes to enforcing business as usual (BAU) norms of middle-class respectability as a way of maintaining property values, Oak Park does not play. Oak Park is so afraid of catching what they think Detroit has, which is blight, that they restrict what property owners can do more than neighboring cities and enforce their will with a vengeance. Put your trash cans out too early or leave them out too long and the police will ticket you. Let your grass grow too high and the city will mow your lawn for you and then bill you. You can only hold two yard sales per year and you have to inform the city in advance. If you want to drink wine while dining in the city, you're out of luck; there are no restaurants with liquor licences. The list goes on and on.

Of course, the people who live there and like it make a point of saying that the police will arrive before you hang up your call to 911, but all the above is the flip side of what the locals praise as "great city services." I hope their property values and middle-class sensibilities are worth it.

Personal aside: When my wife and I were looking for places to live in Oakland County, my co-workers who lived in Oak Park tried to convince me to move there. Unfortunately, when my wife and I looked at houses in the city, we were less than impressed. We got a very conformist, unfriendly, and not-at-all fun vibe from the place, so we decided to look in Ferndale and Royal Oak, which were more to our liking--not that those towns are immune from sustainability-related issues involving zoning. Ferndale has chickens and Royal Oak has Kroger. I'd rather have those controversies, thank you very much.

UPDATE #2: Welcome all of you coming over here from Oak Park Hates Veggies! You've made this entry the most popular post of the week for two weeks running as well as making it the fourth most popular of all time with a bullet. Thank you!

While you're here, I have other posts on the subject that you should read.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

It is a movement against the belief that any aspect of a woman's appearance might explain or excuse rape.

Remember, the social component of sustainability is about promoting a just society. So is the movement described above.

Also, this happened in Grand Rapids? I'll have to search to see if this was the first one in Michigan. I'd be surprised if Grand Rapids beat out Ann Arbor.

I did some searching, and sure enough, it looks like Grand Rapids held the first slutwalk in Michigan. Congratulations, Grand Rapids, you beat out Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Detroit, and Ferndale in something progressive!

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Grand Rapids this afternoon to take part in an event that organizers called 'SlutWalk,' designed to spread the message that victims of sexual assault and rape shouldn't be blamed because of what they wear.
...
Organizers of the event say that their message is simple: The victim of sexual assault is never to blame, regardless of what they choose to wear.
...
Organizers say they were pleased with the turnout to the event, and they were glad to get their message to "stop blaming the victim" out to so many people.

Nearly 150 people gathered at Veterans Park in downtown Grand Rapids Saturday, for the event known as 'Slutwalk'.

Women and men from around West Michigan protested against the belief that a woman's appearance may explain or excuse the act of sexual assault. The marchers walked down Fulton Street, through Monroe Center, for a round trip that concluded back at Veterans Park.
...
"I think there are a lot of aspects of rape culture that people don't understand. So I think this is a good place to start with events that address rape, assault, reproductive rights, sexuality, and consent," said organizer Briana Urena-Ravelo.

Regardless of what they wore, all in the large crowd that marched through the streets of downtown Saturday for "SlutWalk Grand Rapids" had one clear message: Stop blaming victims of sexual assault no matter how they dress.

"It's not you personally that causes whatever happens," said Clara Rouse, 22, of Rockford who came dressed in fishnets, fur covered boots, a tank top and colorful beaded jewelry.

"If someone's going to rape you, they're going to rape you regardless if you're dressed like this or if you're in a baggy T-shirt and shorts," Rouse said.

Read the rest of this article. Also look at the photo gallery, which does an even better job of showing the signs and protesters than the video. As for the comments, well, you take your chances.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Yes, you get a meal of leftovers tonight, but feeding it to you all clears the way for a fresh linkspam of local news tomorrow, some videos I've been sitting on, and more coverage of stories I've been following, such as the ongoing saga of gas prices and the economy.

As I watch videos pop up on my YouTube subscription list, I save them to my Motie News playlist. Nearly all the videos that I've used on this blog are in it. When I went back to look at the list, it turned out that I had enough for a complete linkspam. Here it is, including some videos on the playlist that I've had in the backlog since May.

General Sustainability

Peak Moment 196: "Petroleum Man is dead. Infinite Growth Man is dead. Post Petroleum Human is alive," announced Michael C. Ruppert on May 22, 2011. Members of this emerging "species" know they must live in balance with the Earth, while remembering the lessons of industrial civilization. The star and subject of the documentary "Collapse", Mike founded CollapseNet.com in 2010 to empower people to connect and relocalize.

Ruppert plays almost as big a role in "The End of Suburbia" as Kunstler. Should my students ask what he's doing these days, seven years after "The End of Suburbia" was filmed, I can show them this clip.

Also, Peak Oil is one of the defining sustainability issues of our time, even more than climate change. Of course, the two are intimately connected, but I'm with Kunstler, Ruppert, and others that Peak Oil and its consequences are more likely to cause collapse than climate change.

Speaking of climate change...

Environment, including science and technology

With rising temperatures, extended fire seasons and foreign plant species threatening some of California's most treasured parks, Jarvis discusses actions underway to respond to the crisis.

As a former national park ranger, and a lifelong fan of national parks, I see the problems of the national parks as a good example of how our natural capital is at risk from climate change.

Kirk Goldsberry, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, talks about creating informational graphics and maps to help convey information.

Pay attention to the maps showing the difference in access to produce in Greater Lansing for people who walk and people who drive. Yes, this is old, but it's worth watching.

Society, including culture and politics

M

Ta Da! Today is the day you've been waiting for! The brand new Weather Girls for May. Watch the Sunday eco-friendly angel Kitty bring you the the weather and words of wisdom.

This video from May 1st kicked off a month of green-themed dancing girls, another example of sustainability in unexpected places.

Now, to make up for the above video, I present the following.

It is a movement against the belief that any aspect of a woman's appearance might explain or excuse rape.

Remember, the social component of sustainability is about promoting a just society. So is the movement described above.

Also, this happened in Grand Rapids? I'll have to search to see if this was the first one in Michigan. I'd be surprised if Grand Rapids beat out Ann Arbor.

Economy

The Nation Institute's Chris Hedges and author of his most recent book, The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress says the world as we know it is coming to an end. And what follows won't be pleasant or easy. But that the revolution must start, in America. Hedges joins the show to explain.

I could have posted this video right after the Peak Moment video featuring Ruppert, but there is more of an economic focus in this one. By the way, what Hedges describes is both Kunstler's "Consensus Trance" and Bageant's "The Hologram," both of which are worthy of their own posts.

Speaking of dissident voices on economics from Russia Today, here's Matt Taibbi in a video from about a month ago.

Why is it that our best muckraking reporting on economics and politics is being published in a music magazine? Think about that one, and tie it into what Hedges says above. I'll get back to you on that one.

Chrysler new paint shop

And now, some good local economic news that ties back to investment in technology, completing the circle.

I don't feel like doing a lot of digging for this linkspam, so I just found one economics article for that empty section and decided to publish it. Yes, you get a meal of leftovers tonight, but feeding it to you all clears the way for a fresh linkspam of local news tomorrow, some videos I've been sitting on, and more coverage of stories I've been following, such as the ongoing saga of gas prices and the economy.

Time for the linkspam!

General Sustainability

Speaking from Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama discusses the vital role advanced manufacturing will have in strengthening our economy and creating good, middle-class jobs.

President Obama was kind enough to provide a summary of the speeches I embedded in parts one and two. Thank you Mr. President for making things so convenient for me!

Sea levels began rising precipitously in the late 19th century and have since tripled the rate of climb seen at any time in at least two millennia, a detailed analysis of North Carolina marsh sediments shows.

“This clearly shows the recent trend is not part of a natural cycle,” says Ken Miller of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, who was not associated with the analysis.

In other words, the effects of increased carbon dioxide on sea level date all the way back to when global temperature began to increase more than 100 years ago. I wish I knew how to use this to stick it to the deniers. Any suggestions?

Scientists have developed a way to transform ordinary sand -- a mainstay filter material used to purify drinking water throughout the world -- into a "super sand" with five times the filtering capacity of regular sand. The new material could be a low-cost boon for developing countries, where more than a billion people lack clean drinking water, according to the report in the ACS journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Researchers at Rice University are spinning a bit of nano-based magic to create "coated sand" that has enhanced properties for water purification. The breakthrough may benefit developing countries where more than a billion people lack clean drinking water.

After living in California, where there wasn't enough water, to Michigan, where there is so much that people from outside the midwest want to pipe it away from us, I'm acutely aware of the importance of quality fresh water as a sustainability issue.

For years, it has been assumed that teachers -- specifically math teachers -- need to master the content they intend to teach. And the best way to do this is to take courses beyond that content.

Yet in a paper published today in the Education Forum of the journal Science, Dr. Brent Davis of the University of Calgary says research does not support this common belief. There is little evidence that advanced courses in mathematics contribute to more effective teaching.

Yes, another teaching article. I teach, so I see the quality of education as a sustainability issue as well.

Standard Chartered Plc is on track to mobilize between $10 billion and $12 billion of financing for the renewable energy market over the five years to the end of 2012, a bank official said on Thursday.

"We're pretty much on runway," Brad Sterley, director of the bank's renewable energy and environmental finance team told a clean energy forum in Manila.

In 2007, the bank committed up to $10 billion under the Clinton Global Initiative for renewable and clean energy projects by 2012.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

There will be a bonus part four, sustainability stories from archeology.*
...
*Yes, archeology. I make a point of finding sustainability stories in the strangest places. In the lecture on sustainability I give to my students, I present a list of the usual suspects, such as food, energy, and water, and then include tourism. Trust me, I can find sustainability in almost any issue, including war.

As for what's up next, I think it will be the sustainability in archeology post. I have all the articles I need for that one. Part three proper requires some filling out, just like last week's part three, so it will have to wait.

As for why archeology, other than my wanting to make a point that one can find sustainability angles in almost any subject (one of these days, I'll post about sustainability in reality TV; that should be a hoot, but don't hold your breaths, as it could be more than a year before I get around to it), I have other reasons. First, it's a good way to show that sustainability issues, environmental, social, or economic, have been around a long time. Second, archeology makes for an example of a cultural issue in sustainability in its own right, both in terms of maintaining a rich and diverse culture and in terms of promoting a bearable built environment. Finally, I have a rich source of archeology articles to use. A poster who goes by the name of annetteboardman on Daily Kos has been sending me archeology articles for Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday for more than two years. The convenience alone would explain why I chose to blog about sustainability in archeology first.

Part two will be sustainability from the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Purdue University, and Ohio State University, with a bonus story from Penn State University. Both parts include articles that comment on announcements by President Obama, so watch the videos from the White House YouTube channel.
...
Most of these stories have already been published in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Summer Solstice 2011 edition) on Daily Kos, but not all.

Again, I've arranged the stories so they link up into a circle--science to society to economy and back again to science. Watch for the blending.
...
See you some time after the sun rises with part two, which I already have the stories for.

Add another bonus story from Washington University, Saint Louis, which I had misplaced in part three, to the list. After all, W.U. is a research university and Saint Louis is a midwestern city, as is Kansas City, even though the rest of the state is a "border state" through which very few people, other than Joel Garreau, actually draws the border between the Southern and Midwestern parts of the state. The map below shows where he places it.

That map provides fodder for a dozen posts about how the country might split up and how each region has its own set of sustainability problems and solutions, as well as a fan post on my Dreamwidth and LiveJournal, but now is not the time for them. The sun's long been up, so on to the linkspam!

General Sustainability

President Obama addresses the nation on the way forward in Afghanistan. June 22, 2011.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- President Obama announced yesterday his decision to withdraw 33,000 American troops from Afghanistan by the summer of 2012, declaring that the "surge" of U.S. military personnel ordered in 2009 is meeting its goals. But, according to a Maurer School of Law counterinsurgency expert who briefed military and civilian personnel being deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-10, the speech marks a turning point, not only for the future of Afghanistan but also for the future projection of U.S. power and influence.

"We began in Afghanistan after 9/11 with the objective of creating a modern democracy, society and economy," said James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law David P. Fidler. "The president's decision on troop withdrawals makes clear that this vision is gone for good. His speech told the American people that, because of the surge, the United States is on track to achieve a more limited mission in that country."

Fidler noted several tensions in the speech. He said that the president justified the troop withdrawals on progress made against al-Qaeda, but the most significant damage done to al-Qaeda over the past few years has come from U.S. military actions in Pakistan, including killing Osama bin Laden and drone attacks against al-Qaeda leadership, rather than the counterinsurgency operations mounted in Afghanistan.

I promised articles about war as a sustainability issue in both parts one and two and I delivered. You and I can thank President Obama for this one. He's been a rich source for general sustainability stories this week, as I've included his weekly YouTube address in part three, which summarizes the issues in the videos I've included in parts one and two.

With that, the past week's cycle ends. It begins anew with the weekend sustainability news linkspam, which I will post starting tomorrow night. See you then!

It may not be "tomorrow night," strictly speaking, but it is tomorrow and it is nighttime, so here goes.

By now, all of you should know the drill. Tonight's installment is part one, sustainability news from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. Part two will be sustainability from the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Purdue University, and Ohio State University, with a bonus story from Penn State University. Both parts include articles that comment on announcements by President Obama, so watch the videos from the White House YouTube channel. Part three will be news from national and international commercial sources. There will be a bonus part four, sustainability stories from archeology.* Most of these stories have already been published in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Summer Solstice 2011 edition) on Daily Kos, but not all.

Again, I've arranged the stories so they link up into a circle--science to society to economy and back again to science. Watch for the blending.

*Yes, archeology. I make a point of finding sustainability stories in the strangest places. In the lecture on sustainability I give to my students, I present a list of the usual suspects, such as food, energy, and water, and then include tourism. Trust me, I can find sustainability in almost any issue, including war. Speaking of which, there are war stories in both parts one and two.

Enough meta. Time for the linkspam.

General Sustainability

President Obama kicks off the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national collaboration between the government, industries, and universities to invest in cutting-edge technologies, create new jobs and bring about a renaissance in American manufacturing. June 24, 2011

Responding to President Obama's call to action, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman joins leaders from five other universities as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a national effort bringing together industry, universities and the federal government.

The goal of the new AMP is to invest in the emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance the United States' global competitiveness.
...
s part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, Obama's plan, which leverages existing programs and proposals, is to invest more than $500 million to jumpstart this effort. Investments will be made in the following key areas: building domestic manufacturing capabilities in critical national security industries; reducing the time needed to make advanced materials used in manufacturing products; establishing U.S. leadership in next-generation robotics; increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes; and developing new technologies that will dramatically reduce the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods.

"This initiative matters more to Michigan than any other state," Coleman said. "We are at ground zero for losses in manufacturing jobs. But we also are better positioned to be the epicenter of manufacturing innovation. We know how to retool."

Unlike last week's linkspam, I had no trouble finding general sustainability stories. You and I can thank President Obama for that. He really likes the idea of sustainable development packaged as making America competitive.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

It's been 11 days since I provided a weekly roundup (mirrored on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal) of my posts on Crazy Eddie's Motie News, so I'm overdue for the next one. I may as well using the timing of this post to announce that I'll be posting my weekly reviews on Friday or Saturday from now on. First, the weekly cycle really begins with the weekend linkspams and continues with the stories that spin off from them, so treating them as the end of the cycle just does not reflect the reality of my posting schedule. Second, I have more time on Friday than on Monday to write the roundup. Third, since I am promoting the blog as a whole on Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation instead of specific specially written posts, I no longer have to post these roundups so that they're the first thing Kunstler's readers see. Finally, weekly retrospectives make more sense at the end of everyone else's week than at the beginning of a week.

Also, since this roundup is for the convenience of my readers, consider it a Fan post for Nablopomo.

The next set of posts consisted of my continuing coverage of oil and gas prices. It started with Gas prices fall back below $4.00 in metro Detroit, continued with Oil dropped 4% yesterday, and concluded a week later with Gas prices drop for a second week in Metro Detroit, which was my 100th post on Crazy Eddie's Motie News, which means this post is my 101st. In that post I buried the lede by emphasizing that the angle about gas prices continuing to drop locally. the real story was about how Obama and others are trying to push oil prices down by releasing oil from their nation's petroleum reserves to stimulate their economies during a slowdown, if not outright stall, in an already weak economic recovery.

Two more tightly themed entries based on news that started off in the linkspams, but got spun off, kicked off the next work week. On Monday, I posted It's redistricting time! This post is part of an ongoing series on the U.S. Census and how Michigan has been reacting to official recognition of the state's contraction during the past decade. Watch for more on this ongoing story. The other post spun off the linkspams was Kroger in Royal Oak, the videos, posted on Wednesday. This is another ongoing story, so watch for more about how what looked at first like "just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely," namely a major local controversy over sustainabile built environment and sustainable local business. I have a lot more to write about this topic as well, so stay tuned.

The penultimate post for this roundup was Paul Gilding, another Crazy Eddie, in which I took the big picture view. While this is a change of pace, it isn't off topic. As I wrote in the post, "Just because I blog about sustainability in Detroit doesn't mean that I forget about this blog being about collapse and how to stave it off or survive it. After all, I read the description every time I look at my own blog." This article ended up being included in The PowerSwitch Peak Oil Daily the next day.

Finally, the number one entry from the "back catalog" of the blog last week was U.S.-China EcoPartnerships: The CoDominion plans for sustainability, originally posted on May 15, 2011. I promoted it on Kunstler's blog the next day, and it was the least viewed of any of my promoted entries the week it was posted, which I found disappointing, as I thought it was well done and interesting news. Interest in the post has revived during the past couple of weeks with 5 views today, good for second, 15 views during the past week, tying it for third, 62 views during the past four weeks, placing it fourth, and 106 views overall, good for eighth place and still climbing. I am no longer disappointed by the reception for this post.

With that, the past week's cycle ends. It begins anew with the weekend sustainability news linkspam, which I will post starting tomorrow night. See you then!

Oil tumbled 6 percent on Thursday to a four-month low after the world's top consumers released emergency oil reserves for the third time ever, a surprise intervention to aid the struggling global economy.

The International Energy Agency announced it would inject 60 million barrels of government-held stocks in the global market, immediately increasing world supply by some 2.5 percent for the next month and sending prices spiraling, with U.S. crude prices erasing all of the year's gains.
...
Brent crude futures for August plunged by more than $8 after the news, before settling at a four-month low of $107.26 a barrel, down $6.95 for the day.

U.S. crude lagged the decline as traders bet the relaxation of European oil reserve requirements would have a more direct and immediate impact on London Brent.

August U.S. crude dropped $4.39 to settle at $91.02 a barrel, taking prices more than 20 percent below their post-2008 high above $114 in early May.
...
Oil markets were already down sharply ahead of news of the release, due to worries over global fuel demand following higher-than-expected U.S. jobless claims, forecasts of lower U.S. growth from the Federal Reserve and evidence of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing. The economic concerns helped push investors out of gold, down 2 percent on the day, while other commodities showed smaller losses.

The sell-off also followed a move by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday to cut its growth forecasts for the world's biggest economy.
...
Against that backdrop, analysts said the use of the reserves now -- unlike the previous two releases, which immediately followed the first Gulf War and Hurricane Katrina -- signaled it may have been more concerned with tempering prices to aid a faltering economic recovery.

The oil markets have been doing this dance for a year now. Just about every time oil's share of U.S. GDP starts to pass 4%, Hamilton's magic number for contraction, the price drops. The traders are acting as if they know what that 4% share (or the 6.5% of personal income spent on energy) means and they sell off.
...
If I were Obama, I'd hope oil prices and the U.S. economy keep doing their dance until November of 2012.

Looks like Obama and other leaders of the countries in the International Energy Agency decided to lead instead of follow in this dance and push already falling prices down even more.

If Obama wanted people to respond positively, the following segment from WXYZ shows that they are.

President Barack Obama took withering fire from the oil industry and Republicans for agreeing to release the nation's emergency oil supplies, a decision that senior officials said was prompted by the need to prop up the ailing economy.

Critics blasted the release of 30 million barrels of oil -- half of a global injection coordinated by the International Energy Agency -- as an ill-timed misuse of reserves at a time when U.S. supplies are relatively high, despite the loss of Libya's exports for the past three months.

Some OPEC officials went further, calling it a political ploy that ignored Saudi Arabia's promise to step up production and the fact that oil prices had already fallen sharply.

But the move fueled questions about the timing and catalyst for releasing the stocks, which in the past have been reserved to address abrupt disruptions like natural disasters.

Yeah, the usual suspects. I have a saying, "sometimes it's more important to have the right enemies than to have the right friends." These guys are "the right enemies" for Obama.

I'm sure Kunstler, who is not one of "the right enemies," will have something snarky to say about the long-term futility of the action on Monday. In the long run, he'll be right. In the short run, I'll let the following macro speak for me.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Just because I blog about sustainability in Detroit doesn't mean that I forget about this blog being about collapse and how to stave it off or survive it. After all, I read the description every time I look at my own blog. Case in point:

Half a lifetime ago, Australian Paul Gilding was head of Greenpeace International.

Then the lifelong environmentalist went into business.

Now, Gilding is back with a message that the environment, and business, and all our lives are tumbling into a giant change. The tornadoes, wildfire, drought and flood the world is seeing are the trumpet blast, he says.

Climate change is upon us. It’s going to profoundly change the way we live. And much sooner than we think.

He calls it the Great Disruption. He says it’s here.

This hour On Point: Paul Gilding, on the new life he says we will live.

I listened to some of this program yesterday. Not only did Gilding talk about climate change, he brought up Peak Oil and evidence that humans are at the limits of the planet's capability to support them, including high commodity prices during a period of slow economic growth. He pointed out that we have likely reached the end of economic growth in the way that we're accustomed to making it happen. If the economy is to keep growing, then we'll have to do it some other way.

This is the story Detroit wants the world to hear. Jonathan Oosting of MLive.com is one of more than 50 journalists participating in Transformation Detroit, a three-day media briefing facilitated by the Detroit Regional News Hub that aims to highlight innovative revitalization efforts in the city.

For a sampling of the stories Detroit wants the world to know, read the Detroit Regional News Hub's news blog, or you can watch these two videos from WXYZ on the event.

I'm glad the powers that be are interested in sustainability, but I much prefer Model D's perspective of "Optimism, but not Business as Usual."

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

In the intro to part one of last week's sustainability news linkspam, I mentioned "a local sustainability issue that looks like just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely" in passing. In the spirit of "a picture is worth 1000 words," I give you these videos from WXYZ-TV. Issues of sustainable local business and sustainable built environment pop up all through both videos, including a mention of Royal Oak's walkable neighborhoods and walkable downtown. Then, there's the accusations of corruption by a lobbyist for the convenience store competitors of the proposed Kroger. And you thought city council meetings were boring.

I have a lot more to write about this issue, including coverage from Royal Oak Patch that follows up on the meetings and the provides more detail and my personal opinion of this (it's a very local issue for me, as the site in question is within walking distance of where my wife and I live--she has an opinion, too), but I have to run an errand and go to work. Stay tuned!

The first day of summer—heralded today by a manic bunny and bear in a Google doodle by artist Takashi Murakami—officially kicks off today at 1:16 p.m. ET, the beginning of the summer solstice and of the longest day of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

Just like my Rapture post, I felt I couldn't blog about the environment and not observe an environmentally significant event. The difference is that this one is real.

I'm all in favor of living closer together. I've had enough of car-culture suburban life and more than my fill of living out in the country. I'm also in favor of making cities more energy and resource efficient. I've already seen the light of how urban living can be a good thing, so I am one of those people who already lives close to a downtown and walks to the store. Six years ago, I drove 48,000 miles a year. Now I drive less than 10,000. I'm much happier driving much less.

This morning, which was technically yesterday, Yuki the Kia* passed another milestone, when her odometer flashed 209,000 miles, which means it's time for another driving update to see if I'm doing my part in driving less.

The last time I posted a mileage check was 1000 miles and three months and 10 days ago on March 10, 2011. At that time, it took me 3.25 months to drive 1000 miles, which mean I drove an average of 308 miles/month during that time. This time, it took me 3.33 months to drive that same distance, which means I drove exactly 300 miles a month. I'm still doing my part to keep the number of miles driven by Americans down, as shown on the following graph from Calculated Risk, which came out yesterday. Perfect timing!

So, what made me drive 8 miles less a month, even though I had nearly three weeks of not driving to work during late December and early January? Probably good weather. I've been walking to Friday meetings at the nearest worksite, which is a mile and a half away, as well as walking to the grocery store, which is half that distance. Since I there are three to four more months of good weather left, and only one meeting remaining this academic year that I'll have to make a special drive for, with none until mid September, I might just decrease my miles driven even more. After that I expect my miles driven to increase slightly again and remain elevated until next spring. Then I plan on buying a bike. I haven't had one of those since I got divorced in 1999 and moved out of Ann Arbor. I'm looking forward to having one.

*I still have to explain the geeky pun in her name. I'll save that for another fan post.

A Republican proposal for redistricting Michigan's U.S. Congressional districts would have the entire city represented by one congressman rather than two and lumps those current two reps – Democrats Sander Levin and Gary Peters – into one redrawn 9th District.

The plan released Friday essentially moves Peters of Bloomfield Township into the redrawn district of Royal Oak's Levin, which is mostly Levin's current 12th District of Macomb County with a small portion of Oakland County.
...
Peters and Levin quickly issued a joint statement Friday blasting the Republicans for the most “shamelessly partisan” plan the state has ever seen:

“Instead of drawing fair lines that follow community and county borders in a logical way, the Republican legislature has drafted a map so skewed that it exploits every trick in the book to gerrymander districts in ways that benefit Republican incumbents," the Congressmen's statement said. "The legislature and Governor Snyder should reject this gerrymandered map and draw congressional boundaries in a way that puts Michigan voters’ interests squarely ahead of flagrant partisan advantage."

I've seen this movie before. In 2002, the Republicans in the state legislature dealt with Michigan's losing a U.S. House seat by pitting the most junior Democratic Representative, Lynn Rivers, against the Dean of the House, John Dingell. Rivers was the only Democrat elected to the U.S. House in the Republican wave election of 1994, so they had it in for her. What happened then was that neither Rivers nor Dingell backed down, so they faced each other in a primary. I was rooting for Rivers, as she had been my representative when I lived in Ann Arbor, but I couldn't vote for her, as I was living in Lenawee County, which was in the 7th District. She could have used my vote, as she lost.

As for what's going to happen here, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I worked on Peters' campaign last year, but I've been holding off on contributing to him for 2012 until the dust has settled from redistricting. Because I like both candidates, I'm hoping the two of them make a decision for me so that I don't have to. Otherwise, I'm faced with a quandry. Do I support Peters because I've worked for him before and I think he's better for the future of the party in Michigan (he's the second youngest member of the Michigan Democratic Caucus in the U.S. House) or do I support Levin because he's more progressive and would be favored in what is really his old district? I don't know yet.

Allow me this aside about Rivers' election in 1994. It was a choice between her and a young Republican activist. My ex-wife, a staunch Republican, put pressure on me to not vote for Rivers. Her political motto was "No Dumb-dumb-crats in this house!" I really preferred Rivers, who was familiar to me because of her service on the Ann Arbor School Board, but decided to honor the letter of my ex-wife's demand by deliberately throwing a away my vote by casting it for the Libertarian candidate in the race. After we walked out of the polling place, she asked, "You didn't vote for any Democrats, did you?" I could truthfully answer yes. Not having to pull stunts like that is one of many good reasons I'm happy to no longer be married to that woman!

Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski , who narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Gary Peters in November, isn't so sure about running again for Congress in 2012.

"We'll see what happens," Raczkowski told Insider, noting he's focusing on his family.

Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, defeated Raczkowski 50 percent to 47 percent in November. Raczkowski said in January he'd "absolutely" try for a rematch if there is a winnable district after remapping.

Now, as Michigan lawmakers are redrawing the 15 congressional district lines to 14 due to population losses, the 9th District is looking like a political firestorm. A GOP draft plan first published by The News showed Peters' Oakland County district combining with that of Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, setting the stage for a possible incumbent showdown.

One likely Republican challenger, state Rep. Marty Knollenberg, is interested in taking back the seat lost by his father Joe in 2008. Knollenberg also sits on the state House's redistricting committee that helps redraw the district lines.

I don't think Marty McFly is going to take back the 9th District from either Democrat.

Redistricting is creating lesser controversies in state races as well.

Lansing — A loss of clout for Detroit and Wayne County is reflected in the Michigan Senate redistricting map drawn by state Republicans.

The map, first published and reported on by The News this morning, was released by the Michigan Senate shortly after noon today. It would result in significant changes in the boundary lines of most of the state's 38 Senate districts. Since the GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and has a majority of nominees on the Michigan Supreme Court that could ultimately decide the issue, the map could closely reflect the changes ultimately made to account for population losses and shifts documented in the recent census.

Wayne County would drop to seven senators, from eight.

And for the first time, no Senate district would be wholly contained within the boundaries of the city of Detroit, meaning it would be possible to have a Michigan Legislature with no Detroit senators. The current Senate has four senators from Detroit, which over the last decade saw its population drop by 25 percent, from about 950,000 to less than 715,000.

The shoes aren't finished dropping. The Democrats will release their plan today. Good luck getting that one passed.

And, yes, I changed my mind from yesterday, when I thought I'd do the other story and save this one for later. It turns out this was the story that was ready, not the other one. I'll tackle that one later.

ETA: For my previous post on redistricting, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the post to the last article of the leftover linkspam. There you will find a link to an Oakland Press article and video explaining the process.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Part three will consist of sustainability news from national commercial and miscellaneous sources. I also have a part four from local commericial sources in the works, but that's turning into two themed blog posts, one on redistricting and another on a local sustainability issue that looks like just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely, plus a leftover linkspam.

As you can see, I've had a change of plans. I decided to combine the local stories that didn't fit into the two theme posts with the national stories for a combined part three. That's because what I advertised as a strength in part two ended up being a weakness.

I'll make up for the weak selection of general sustainability articles in the first two parts of this linkspam with part three. There will be lots of solid general sustainability articles there.

The national stories were so strong in general sustainability that they were lacking in the subfields. On the other hand, the local stories had some strength in those areas. Why have both a main course with no side dishes and leftovers later when I can turn them into a complete meal? Don't answer, just enjoy the linkspam.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An agreement between the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a leading international business school in Sweden will bring about increased collaboration in faculty and graduate research and more study-abroad opportunities for students.

The agreement for scholarly cooperation joins SPEA with Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), a leading European international business school that is highly regarded for scholarship of entrepreneurship and small business. The agreement calls for:

Faculty exchanges for purposes of teaching, research, lectures and seminars
Joint research projects on topics of mutual interest
Student exchanges, with opportunities for IU students to study at JIBS and vice versa

I had to stretch to place this here, but the story is about a international agreement between an environmental school and a business school, so it has society, environment, and economics content. Besides, I didn't have any other good candidates.

I'll make up for the weak selection of general sustainability articles in the first two parts of this linkspam with part three. There will be lots of solid general sustainability articles there.

Enjoy the rest of the linkspam and watch for the progression from science through society to economics and back again to science. The first article in environment sets up the connection with the last article in economics. The first shows money flowing into science as an investment while the last shows the return from investment in science.

It's time for the weekend sustainability news linkspam. This is part one, with news from Michigan's research universities. Part two will consist of sustainability news from the public research universities of Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Part three will consist of sustainability news from national commercial and miscellaneous sources. I also have a part four from local commericial sources in the works, but that's turning into two themed blog posts, one on redistricting and another on a local sustainability issue that looks like just a zoning and development issue, but has turned into something else entirely, plus a leftover linkspam. I might create something for Kunstler's readers, I might not. We'll see.

No grand overarching theme made itself glaringly obvious this week, at least with the stories from Michigan Universities, and I'm too tired from collecting the links for all four parts of the linkspam, along with organizing them into a different format as Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday on Daily Kos, either to dig for a theme or embellish the entries with commentary, so I'm contenting myself with arranging the links so they form a seamless circle from science to society to economy and back again.

That written, enjoy part one of this weekend's sustaibability news linkspam!

General Sustainability

A public presentation held on the evening of April 13, 2011, allowed discussion of white collar crime and its citizenship effects. Panelists included U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, prominent private practice attorney Harold Gurewitz, and Wayne Law professor Peter J. Henning. The panel discussed some of the challenges facing prosecutors of white collar crime, ambiguities facing defendants or those who cooperate in investigations, and the strong regional differences that may creep into decision making on which kinds of cases are prosecuted.

Why is this long video occupying the general sustainabiliy slot? Because there are elements of all three legs of sustainability. First, it features Enron, which means that it has an energy angle, a topic I place under environment. Second, it includes obvious economic and political elements. Finally, I didn't have any other entries I could justify as being general sustainability. C'est la vie!

Lansing— Gov. Rick Snyder today announced a major reorganization of the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth that will include a new name — the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

"By consolidating its core functions under one roof and transferring responsibilities that were not compatible to the appropriate agencies, this streamlined department is better positioned to serve its customers while significantly contributing to our overall goal of fostering economic success," Snyder said.

"Its customers" not "the citizens" or even "the taxpayers." Well, it looks like the Tough Nerd is serious about running Michigan like a business. Too bad a state government isn't a business.

So, what did Snyder do with the functions you think are not compatible with the core purpose of the new department, particularly my favorite, energy?

Also moving to the Strategic Fund are the department's energy functions, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the Land Bank Fast Track, Snyder said in a news release.

I didn't find the news release, but I did find the executive orders. I'll quote those in a diary on Daily Kos and Michigan Liberal.

Abolished are the Automobile and Home Insurance Consumer Advocate and the position of chief energy officer, both created by Snyder's predecessor, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in 2008.

I much preferred the old name--it was a recognition of the roles of labor and energy in economic growth. The new name and organizational chart deny these connections. Why, there is no longer a chief energy officer! Hey, folks, way to signal that Michigan no longer has an energy policy! *grump*

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I just checked the corner gas station, where I'm going to fill up my car in a few minutes on the way into work. They're selling unleaded regular for $3.75/gallon, and that's the credit price.

I actually ended up paying $3.72/gallon because I was using my Speedway card, which was a pleasant surprise. It also means that my prediction from April was dead wrong, as I paid less than last time, when gas cost me $3.81. Lucky me, I managed to avoid buying any gas during the time it went back over $4.00.

Back to what I posted yesterday.

If that price holds, AAA Michigan and the Detroit Free Press will have another price drop to report next week.

(Reuters) - Oil slid more than 4 percent on Wednesday, as signs of further economic weakness fed demand worries and a rising dollar weighed, triggering technical sell stops and sending U.S. crude to its lowest since February.

U.S. crude weakened early on data showing a rise in core inflation and shrinking New York manufacturing. After a brief rise on news of a big drop in weekly U.S. crude stocks, prices succumbed to intensifying selling pressure, breaking below the 150-day moving average and $95 key support.

"It's a rush for the exits. The market has been overvalued for some time now...the Brent market has been a bubble and the bubble is bursting today," said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective.

"In my opinion, WTI would be fairly valued at $85 a barrel and Brent at $90 a barrel," Evans added.

U.S. July crude fell $4.56 to settle at $94.81 a barrel, the lowest since February 22. It hit a session low of $94.01, also the lowest since that day.

AAA Michigan says gasoline prices are down 23 cents per gallon over the past week to a statewide average of $3.88.

I just checked the corner gas station, where I'm going to fill up my car in a few minutes on the way into work. They're selling unleaded regular for $3.75/gallon, and that's the credit price. If that price holds, AAA Michigan and the Detroit Free Press will have another price drop to report next week. That's good news and it's not a suppository.

Many know Livernois Avenue as the street that harbors hundreds of businesses. But for those old enough to remember, think back to when part of its northern corridor was one of the most popular shopping districts in Detroit.

Between 7 and 8 Mile roads, the commercial district known as the Avenue of Fashion used to be the "go to" place for the best apparel in town. It included a multitude of local businesses including retail shops, art galleries, bookstores, medical offices, hair salons and barbershops.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the period when the district was thriving financially, tons of patrons could be seen strolling up and down the pavement of the Livernois strip, walking in and out of stores with bags in hand, investing money back into the community. Stores such as B. Siegel Company and historic venues like Baker's Keyboard Lounge were two of the most popular attractions in the area and kept the fashion district on its toes.

Fast-forward to 2011. The Avenue of Fashion is one of many commercial districts in the process of reshaping its image to appeal to a new generation of Detroiters who may not know about the quality shops that populate the area. Yet, unlike many other districts, the Avenue of Fashion has a rally of support that has never left its side -- the local champions of the community.

Not having grown up here, I'm quite ignorant of the things that that locals my age would know, so I'm glad Model D exists to enlighten me. Livernois in Detroit being a fashionable commercial district was one of them. However, I shouldn't be surprised. Livernois in Detroit becomes Main Street in Royal Oak and Clawson before becoming Livernois again in Troy, and the stretch here in Oakland County definitely is fashionable, although it caters more to food than clothing these days. However, the part of the street in Detroit is beginning to catch that wave, too.

While clothing boutiques have always been at the heart of the Avenue of Fashion, food is another feature within the strip that is slowly gaining momentum, especially since 1917 American Bistro opened its doors in 2009. The upscale, yet affordable dining establishment has been receiving a ton of buzz for its elegant, intimate environment and European-inspired menu. The restaurant has also had an impact on the district, attracting more people to the area. Tandy says that since American Bistro opened, she has been working with three business owners who are interested in putting restaurants in the area.

American Bistro is now on my list of places I want to eat.

As for the future, the grassroots optimism that Model D specializes in showcasing are clearly on display.

Tandy as well as other business owners in the area are working towards turning the Avenue of Fashion back into the thriving community it once was.

"I remember what it was and I know what it can be," Tandy says. "And I know it can be fabulous and we are going to make sure that it is going to be."

Livernois also passes through Ferndale, which is also "fabulous"--so much so that it was number on on my list of places to live in Oakland County (my wife and I got a house on a silver platter on the other side of I-96, so living in Ferndale hasn't happened--yet). It looks like the spirit of Ferndale is crossing back over 8 Mile.

What can we learn about Detroit from the history and character of another place? Recently I was able to attend the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Convention in New Orleans. Here are some thoughts.

New Orleans is one of the most intriguing and architecturally rich cities in America. The melding of French European traditions, island architecture and the combination of Deep South, Cajun, Creole and Caribbean cultures form a rich and tasty stew.

Detroit is equally interesting but in many different ways. Its beauty is a bit harder to see because it is so dispersed. Detroit has the beauty of neighborhoods like Indian Village, Palmer Park, Sherwood Forest. But it does not have the vital urban and walkable density that New Orleans has. Detroit has a strange beauty found in its crumbling infrastructure, and even more beauty in its energetic struggle to improve and revitalize found in Southwest Detroit, Eastern Market or in Midtown's Cultural Center.

I like the use of compare and contrast in this article, along with the subject matter. As an educator who teaches sustainability and likes to use compare and contrast assignments, I'm so taken with both the subject matter and the use of comparision and contrast that I'm tempted to copy this and pass it out to my students as a good example. But enough meta and shop talk--back to the essay.

New Orleans is dedicated to urban life. Detroit has not been an intensely urban city since the beginning of the 20th century. Detroit embraced the virtues of the automobile and its impulse to expand. The land was there to fill and we sprawled into it with the help of cars and freeways. New Orleans is surrounded by water, confined by land difficult to build on. It remained dense. New Orleans is like a traditional European city. Detroit is a modern American metropolis. Urbanity is a New Orleans legacy. In Detroit, urbanity has been generally frowned on although that mentality is changing. The ranks of those that want an urban Detroit are growing.

As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, I found the sprawl in Detroit and its suburbs very familiar. In fact, I've called Detroit "a cold L.A." before. Both places are not only in love with sprawl, but with cars as well, although in very different ways. L.A. loves cars as consumers, Detroit as producers. That said, I've had it with the sprawl of both cities, and I'm counting myself among the growing ranks of those who want an urban Detroit.

As for the essay itself, it concludes with a series of questions.

We do not have control over the natural conditions but we do have some control over our vision. As we work to make Detroit a better place what is our collective vision? Are we satisfied with our disconnected life or will we embrace the beauty of living close together? Will we see that a dense city is more energy and resource efficient? Will we see that a dense city promotes community and creativity, will improve the quality of our lives and help us keep our talented and creative youth or will we remain a city of isolated beauty and disconnected resources?

We all have the opportunity to contribute to that vision by our everyday choices. Do you choose to live close to a downtown and walk to the store or do you want live on two acres and drive everywhere. These are choices that will alter the shape of our city.

I'm all in favor of living closer together. I've had enough of car-culture suburban life and more than my fill of living out in the country. I'm also in favor of making cities more energy and resource efficient. I've already seen the light of how urban living can be a good thing, so I am one of those people who already lives close to a downtown and walks to the store. Six years ago, I drove 48,000 miles a year. Now I drive less than 10,000. I'm much happier driving much less.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Part three up later today, then a post for the readers of Clusterfuck Nation.

As you can see that didn't happen. I decided to watch TV with my wife, then played a MMORPG with her. Both of those deserve more attention, but not here. If you really want to know, read my LiveJournal or Dreamwidth accounts. Those activities fit perfectly this month's "Fan" theme for Nablopomo. Consequently, I'm posting part three today, not last night. Hey, I can't be all SRS BZNS all the time!

As for something special for Kunstler's readers, it's not going to happen this week. Not only did I not get around to writing one, but his blog has become more persnickety about links in comments, so I could only post a comment that had a bare link to the blog as a whole, not a formatted link to a particular post. Ah, well, Aimlow Joe and The Leibowitz Society are still going strong as commenters over there, so I'm not worried about being banned as a spammer. For starters, no one is complaining about me in comments; the trolls get all the attention. Second, Leibowitz Society and Aimlow Joe are good company. The first is a serious if eccentric sustainability blogger that I just followed. The second is more of a clown, but still worth reading. I'll review the former in a future post; the latter is worth reading, but not worth reviewing.

That written, I now provide a weekly roundup for the readers coming here from Kunstler's blog.

Three posts comment on sustainablity news from The Oakland Press. In Gas prices back above $4.00/gallon in metro Detroit, I describe the reasons and effects of the midwest's gas prices bucking the national trend of slowly falling prices. Gas is now cheaper, but the economic damage has been done. There's good news in Motie News Brief: GM's Orion plant to go green--good news as long as you like cars. Both of the above were originally supposed to be part of a larger linkspam, but I decided both of those items deserved their own posts. What remained of that planned linkspam were all the sustainability-related poltical posts, which ended up in Linkspam Leftovers: Sustainability News from The Oakland Press for June 6, 2011. All of the topics discussed about scrambling for pieces of a smaller pie, whether it's the rapid dissolution of the city of Pontiac, fights over school budgets, or the process of redistricting.

On a more cheerful note, one of my favorite local news sources is Model D. In Model D Media, fans of Detroit, I let one of the founders describe the outlet's philosophy, which I summarize as "Optimism, but not business as usual," in his own words in a video.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

It's tomorrow, so it's time for a sustainability news linkspam. This is part one, with news from Michigan's research universities. Part two will consist of sustainability news from the public research universities of Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Part three will consist of sustainability news from other sources. Watch for them overnight.

I'll have a post suitable for linking from Kunstler's blog tomorrow or early Monday morning. Right now, I'd base it on this post from the Harvard Business School, but I could certainly change my mind between now and then. Stay tuned.

Without any further ado, here is this week's news.

General Sustainability

Dr. Carol Miller, chair and professor of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Wayne State University is developing a cutting-edge software package designed to ultimately improve the health of the Great Lakes and beyond.

The United States Society for Ecological Economics will hold its 2011 conference June 26 -29 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center at Michigan State University.

This year's conference focuses on the theme "Building a Green Economy" and includes experts in areas such as climate change, biofuels, human behavior and economic transformation.

The preceding is an announcement that I missed last week, but not by much, as the event is still in the future, so I included it in this week's report.

Environment, including science and technology

University of Michigan School of Public Health researcher Rachel Snow and Eve Mokotoff, an adjunct lecturer at SPH, and HIV patient Michael Jonas look back at the last 30 years and focus on the future priorities going forward.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—When Michael Jonas learned he was HIV positive, he returned from Florida to his home in Jackson, Mich., to die.

A decade later Jonas, 47, lives with HIV as one would any chronic disease: he takes his antiviral drugs and plans his future—a future Jonas expects to be long and productive, including earning his degree in social work and counseling other HIV patients.

Such is the case for many HIV patients now. This month marks 30 years since the disease was discovered, and science has reduced HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic disease, but there's still no cure.

HIV is definitely a sustainability issue, even though most people classify it as under health.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Banning federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research would have "disastrous consequences" on the study of a promising and increasingly popular new stem cell type that is not derived from human embryos, according to a University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, are reprogrammed adult cells that display many of the most scientifically valuable properties of embryonic stem cells while enabling researchers to bypass embryos altogether. Scientists hope to harness the power of both cell types to understand and treat disease, and possibly to grow new tissues to replace diseased organs.

When they burst onto the scene in 2007, iPS cells were heralded by some as likely replacements for the controversial human embryonic stem cells they mimic.

But a new analysis of more than 2,000 scientific papers by U-M sociologist Jason Owen-Smith and his colleagues finds that iPS cells are not replacing human embryonic stems cells in the laboratory. In fact, the two cell types have proven to be complementary, interdependent research tools, according to a commentary article scheduled for online publication June 9 in the journal Cell.

Vaccines that save lives by preventing disease have been around for centuries. Now, new vaccines that treat cancer are being developed, but how they will be combined with existing treatments is not clear.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System recommend that a national strategy be developed for bringing therapeutic cancer vaccines to patient care, so that cancers with less effective treatment options are priority targets.

“Vaccines that prevent disease have profoundly changed the lives of billions of people around the world,” says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., MAPP, associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. “A national strategy for therapeutic cancer vaccines would help emphasize development and regulatory approval for vaccines targeting cancers that currently do not have other good therapeutic options.”

Davis and co-author Elias J. Dayoub, a student at the U-M Medical School, published a commentary in the June 8 theme issue on cancer of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

As I've pointed out before, these categories bleed into each other. Watch the progression of the articles from here to the end of the section, and notice that the proportion of social issues in these science stories steadily increases, to the point where dividing the two sections becomes a matter of arbitrary executive decision making.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Demographic factors significantly affect mental health concerns among black men, according to a study by the University of Michigan and University of Southern California that provides the first-ever national estimates of several mental disorders for black men.

Advanced age was linked to better mental health status, the research showed. Older men had fewer depressive symptoms, lower levels of psychological distress and lower odds of having 12-month major depressive disorder than their younger counterparts.

However, the study found that lower socioeconomic position—lower levels of education, being unemployed or out of the labor market and being in poverty—was associated with poorer mental health status.

DETROIT- A Wayne State University professor of family medicine and public health sciences has been recognized for his contributions to medicine and research with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Iraqi Medical Sciences Association (IMSA).

Hikmet Jamil, M.D., Ph.D., resident of West Bloomfield, Mich., director of occupational and environmental medicine graduate courses and professor in the Division of Occupational and Health Sciences in WSU's School of Medicine, received the award from IMSA President Saad Shakir on May 28, 2011, during the association's ninth annual convention in Troy, Mich.

"I feel very honored to be recognized for my work," said Jamil, whose primary areas of research include Iraqi refugee and immigrant health disorders, and the impact of hookah (water pipe) smoking on health. "Awards such as these are always appreciated, and I will use it to fuel my efforts to improve medical science and the health of others."

The IMSA is a nonprofit, nonpolitical organization whose members include physicians, dentists, pharmacists, scientists and other health science professionals of Iraqi descent. The association works to develop and promote professional, educational, cultural and humanitarian charitable efforts for the community and for Iraq.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Though pundits and candidates suggest there is too much anger in politics, the emotion does have a potential benefit—it significantly motivates citizens to vote, according to a University of Michigan study.

"Anger in politics can play a particularly vital role, motivating some people to participate in ways they might ordinarily not," said Nicholas Valentino, the study's lead author and a professor of communication studies and political science. "We normally think people with a lot of resources and political skills are the ones who participate, but many citizens in this category regularly abstain from politics. Furthermore, many citizens with few resources can be mobilized if they experience strong anger.

"Anger leads citizens to harness existing skills and resources in a given election. Therefore, the process by which emotions are produced in each campaign can powerfully alter electoral outcomes."

This is why 2011 and 2012 will be good years for Democrats; the Republicans have pissed us off!

Speaking of Republicans pissing Democrats off and war as a sustainability issue, remember "shock and awe?"

The public is invited to a lecture titled "The Post-Cold War Nuclear Optic; or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and See the Bomb" at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 in the in Wayne State University's Bernath Auditorium The lecture is free and reservations are not required.

Distinguished Guest Scholar Dr. John Louis Lucaites, professor of rhetoric and public culture in the Department of Communication at Indiana University, will examine various forms and theories of visual rhetoric in the context of public culture, ideology and civic participation. "Dr. Lucaites is a leading expert in the rapidly growing area of visual rhetoric," said Jim Cherney, WSU assistant professor and coordinator of the seminar. "The critique of visual texts - films, photographs, tattoos and even bodies - has become a new focus for rhetorical analysis."

The lecture examines how nuclear imagery eventually gave way to more contemporary instances of "Shock and Awe" animated by what Lucaites characterizes as a "post-cold war nuclear optic."

That's not all for the study of rhetoric.

Jeff Grabill, professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures and co-director at the Writing in Digital Environments Research Center, talks about how writing and rhetoric are changing because of today's communication technologies.

“As communication technologies have become more pervasive and smaller and more ubiquitous in our lives, that area of study has gotten more exciting,” said Jeff Grabill, a professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures.

In the ancient origins of Western education, rhetoric – the study of the art of persuasion – was one of the things that was taught to all students who were privileged enough to be educated, Grabill said.

Today, “we understand language to mean lots of things — not just words, but also sound and video image,” he said. “The rhetorical study of how to communicate effectively has exploded as reasons and situations for using rhetoric have exploded and expanded, and the technologies that we can use to communicate have changed.”

EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s time for the United States to consider establishing higher standards for math teachers if the nation is going to break its “vicious cycle” of mediocrity, a Michigan State University education scholar argues in Science magazine.

As American students continue to be outpaced in mathematics by pupils in countries such as Russia and Taiwan, William Schmidt recommends adopting more rigorous, demanding and internationally benchmarked teacher-preparation standards for math teachers.

“Our research shows that current teacher-preparation programs for middle-school math instructors in the United States do not produce teachers with an internationally competitive level of mathematics knowledge,” said Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor and co-director of MSU’s Education Policy Center.

Schmidt makes his argument in an “education forum” paper in the June 10 edition of Science, one of the world’s preeminent science research journals. MSU researchers Richard Houang and Leland Cogan co-authored the paper.

Yeah, there's more science in this story than the ones immediately above it. Moving it up would have disturbed the flow of the larger story I wanted to tell.

DETROIT (June 8, 2011) - Twenty-seven Wayne State University Law School students gained legal experience and served their communities through the Wayne Law Pro Bono Program and its partnership with the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Project (MiUI) in 2010-11.

MiUI provides free unemployment insurance advocacy for displaced workers and their families in eight Michigan counties including Genesee, Jackson, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Saginaw, Washtenaw and Wayne. The project and its more than 90 law student volunteers from across Michigan have assisted approximately 285 jobless workers since opening its doors in Ann Arbor in January 2010 and Detroit in September 2010.

As part of their involvement, Wayne Law students attended administrative hearings before administrative law judges and local courts, provided advice regarding the unemployment insurance claims process and advocated on behalf of their clients. On average, they volunteered five hours per week working in teams of two on two cases at a time.
...
Amy Tilchen serves as supervising attorney in MiUI's Detroit office. According to Tilchen, who also started a legal clinic at the Detroit Rescue Mission in the Cass Corridor, Wayne Law students represented the bulk of MiUI's volunteer base this past term.

"Wayne Law students represented more than half of our volunteers this term," she said. "I continue to be impressed with the caliber of the student volunteers and have really enjoyed working with them. Through their efforts and the rest of the MiUI students, we've been able to recover an estimated $1 million in emergency replacement income for hurting Michigan workers. Wayne Law students are making a big difference for Detroit area jobless workers, their families and their communities."

And this story shows the connection between society and economy. Nice transition, if I do say so myself.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — This month, Michigan State University will host a town hall meeting with African scholars, development professionals, international leaders and students to discuss United States assistance in the development of Africa.

The free public town hall will take place from 1:30 to 5 p.m. June 26 in the Auditorium of the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. During the forum, scholars, students, members of the African diplomatic corps, the general public and governmental and non-governmental organizations can assemble for short panel presentations followed by group conversation. Participants will help university scholars shape new ideas and directions for Africa's development.

The town hall will conclude the Midwest Summit on African Development, an event involving a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations exploring the role of U.S. universities, NGOs and foundations in advancing African development. It is a new collaboration initiated by MSU.

From international economic development to local economic development, here we go.

Dan McCole, assistant professor of commercial recreation and tourism in the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, works with businesses to help them attract tourists to Michigan.

When Michigan’s economy was strong, its tourism industry thrived on Michiganders taking vacations within their own state. But since Michiganders’ wallets have been tighter, the tourism industry has had to attract tourists from outside the state.

“Michigan as a travel destination in some ways is a well-kept secret,” Dan McCole said.
...
Even in these tough times, Michigan’s natural resources and agriculture are still its prize possessions, McCole said.

“Michigan is the second most diverse agricultural state in the country behind California. We have great local foods, and when we’re talking about tourism, that’s a big part of it,” he said. “When people travel, they want to experience local flavors.”

Missed this one last week also, but again not by much, so I included it here. Besides, it makes for a good conclusion, as it returns this post back to the beginning by ending with an economic story that has a strong general sustainability component.